New data from a UN-backed review of food security shows that 57% of South Sudan's population will experience acute food insecurity during next year's dry season amid an influx of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released on Monday showed the long-term impact of successive crises in South Sudan, with the total number of people facing acute food insecurity expected to rise to nearly 7.7 million (57% of the population) as of next April, up from 7.1 million this year.

The IPC is the global standard for measuring food insecurity, or what you might call the "Richter scale" of hunger, as defined by the UN World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian organization that saves lives in emergencies.

The new categorization showed that malnutrition threatens nearly 2.1 million children in South Sudan, up from 1.65 million.

According to the report, children return to feeding centers multiple times throughout the year as they continue to suffer from poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The disease is a major contributing factor to child malnutrition.